Glad you also like the changes :)
Usually we do send a reminder before the end of the month to the members that subscribed and their subscription will expire.
All Subscriptions are count only till the end of the calendar month. So if you send 1.60 Steem now for December, you will get a reminder by the end of Dec about expiring.

Technically you can send for a year in advance, but it is a very very long time and many thing can change. Both on Steemit and in Qurator (Subscription values, options and so on).